Epson calls its new Expression Home XP-430 printer a “Small-in-One” for good reason: It packs a lot of functions into a compact size.
The sub-$100 unit scans and makes copies in addition to printing wirelessly via Apple AirPrint or Google Cloud Print. It’s not a productivity monster that would be suited for a really busy home office, but for a light-duty personal printer, it’s worth serious consideration.
We currently use the Expression Home XP-430 at the Cult of Mac office, and it’s accommodated us well for the low volume of printing we do on a daily basis. It’s got a great, space-saving design and small footprint, a highly valued commodity in an office overflowing with products.
The XP-430 is one of Epson’s “Small-in-One” series of inkjet multifunction printers, and follows the XP-420 from 2015 with a couple of added features, including a larger LCD display and a different ink formulation.
With the XP-430, color printouts come out vibrant, while text visibility is above average. Plus, it can print from nearly any device and offers several good connectivity options including Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct, as well as the ability to scan, edit and share photos directly to Facebook or the cloud. Best of all, the XP-430 is a great value at $49.99 on Amazon.
Let’s take a closer look.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Epson XP-430 features and design
The glossy-black Expression Home XP-430 weighs just 9 pounds and measures 15.4 inches wide, 5.7 inches tall and 11.8 inches deep with both trays closed. Open and with its two trays extended, it’s 15.4 inches wide, 11 inches tall and 20.4 inches deep inches — definitely more compact than most of its rivals.
The top-loading paper feeder accommodates 100 sheets of plain paper at a time, which is plenty for our small office, and can accommodate various types of photo and presentation paper. A tilt-up control panel houses a 2.7-inch color, non-touch LCD display, with a standard four-way controller and central OK button to the right of the LCD. The two trays and control panel can be folded up and out of the way, allowing the XP-430 to fit into tight spaces.
The flatbed scanner can scan or copy up to letter-size documents, but there’s no automatic document feeder for scanning multiple pages unattended. It also doesn’t do double-sided printing, as seen in the Canon MG5720 Wireless Inkjet All-in-One, our editor’s pick for budget MFP for home use. The XP-430 includes a memory-card reader that accepts cards in the SD family.
Wireless printing and scanning
I love having the ability to print without being tethered to a printer. There are a variety of ways to connect to the XP-430 from multiple devices, including a smartphone or tablet: via USB to a computer, via WiFi Direct for a peer-to-peer connection with a compatible device, and via 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi to a network.
Printing remotely from your iPhone or Android has its advantages, as you can use Epson’s range of free mobile printing apps. Or, use Google Cloud Print in Chrome for remote printing. There’s also bonus software included that enables scanning to Facebook and the cloud. It’s easy and convenient to print photos from Facebook and Instagram, or scan photos and upload them to the same services. Also included are tools for red-eye removal, photo restoration and more.
Print quality and speed
It took a matter of minutes to easily set up the Expression Home XP-430 wirelessly for my desktop and tablet. For plain, black text printing, the XP-430 pumps out about eight pages per minute; color and photo printouts took significantly longer at around 2.5 pages per minute.
That’s relatively slow, but I was impressed with the output quality: Black text is clear and easy to read. Color printing is good, though not comparable to photo-optimized inkjet printers. The printer comes with four individual DuraBrite Ultra Inks ink cartridges, which are smudge-, fade- and water-resistant. You only replace the ink that you need.
Photo: Leander Kahney/Cult of Mac
Bottom line
The drawbacks are few for this compact multi-use printer: You can’t fax, it lacks an ethernet port, and the print speeds are relatively slow. Still, it’s lighter and smaller than most rival printers, making the Epson XP-430 a great choice if you need a multifunction printer for a tight space. Super-simple setup, good text quality, bonus software and a budget price point make the Epson a very satisfying printing solution for light-duty home offices or dorm rooms.
Price: $49.99
Buy from: Amazon
We received review units for this roundup. Read Cult of Mac’s reviews policy.
2 responses to “Epson XP-430 packs a multifunction printer into a small package [Review]”
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Printers are sold cheap because the ink is where companies like Epson make money. In my experience with Epson, I have noticed that the inks dry out really fast if not used so it’s a no-win situation. You literally have to buy a cartridge after in cartridge in order to print the least number of pages. If you don’t print anything for even just a few days, the ink dries out or leaves a bad smudge on the paper. This means you have to reprint what you have already printed which means yet more ink. Epson seems to be exceptionally bad with colour inkjet printers in that when you only want to print in black that uses all the other colours as well even when you’re trying to economize. There is no way to take out the other colours and have a printer function with just black only. So good luck to anyone who falls for this $49 printer. Enjoy wasting your money and ink well into the future. For what it’s worth, a couple weeks ago I literally put my fist through my Epson printer, and went and bought a Canon laser printer and scanner which works insanely great.